“A powerful story about friendship, race, love, forgiveness, and justice – and the stunning ways they intersect…Empathetic, riveting, and authentic.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
Just finished We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza.
This very topical book is about a police shooting of a young, unarmed Black teenager and the effect it has on one of the officers wife and her best friend, a local, well known TV Reporter.
Jen is a White Housewife, married to a police officer named Kevin.
Riley is a black TV News reporter. They have known each other since they were children. They have always been best friends, and Riley’s family is very close to Jen. Riley’s grandmother Gigi treated Jen like one of her own.
One night Kevin is on patrol with his partner when a call comes in about an incident involving a black youth. They lock on to a kid they believe is the suspect and they begin to give chase. At some point Kevin’s partner who is slightly ahead of Kevin in the chase yells “gun” and opens fire. Kevin instinctively opens fire also. The young man is struck and killed. He is unarmed and it quickly becomes obvious he is not the suspect. The blue wall of secrecy expects Kevin to back his partner in whatever he says happened.
Riley hears about the case and it is assigned to her. She quickly gets deeply involved in the case, forming a relationship with the Mother of the deceased.
Jen fails to approach Riley, not knowing how to handle the entire situation.
The main part of the story involves how both women handle this crises. Told in alternating chapters, both stories begin to evolve, and the relationship of Jen and Riley begins to hang in the balance.
Seemingly taken from today’s headlines, it is a decent attempt to capture the turmoil and mistrust that develops when something like this happens. The story flows quickly and is told in a way that keeps your interest alive at all times as the story heads to its conclusion.
Worth a shot.
Reviewed by:
Richard Franco
Added 14th June 2022
